Work Text:
“Thank you - once again, for letting me stay over.”
“Hm?” Ranmaru stopped in his tracks, turning his head to look over at Masato whom had bowed his head towards the other before then following him into the apartment. “No need to be so formal, jeez. But, you’re welcome, or whatever.” He said, moving his hand in a brushing off motion before taking off his shoes and heading inside. “Right..” Masato followed suite, looking around the famed mystery house of Ranmaru Kurosaki.
Despite Quartet Night moving as a unit, and even living as one for the most part, Ranmaru and Camus had separate dwellings in which they’d escape too occasionally to get away from it. Masato had heard rumours of it, which Ranmaru confirmed to him when he’d asked. Never had he expected to actually be invited to such a place. Actually coming here made him feel as if their relationship actually had started advancing some more.
Whilst keeping close to Ranmaru, Masato couldn’t help but idly look around the place. It certainly wasn’t as grand as the residency Shining gave everyone, but the space had a certain.. Commoner charm, least to say. In fact, this place was pretty comparable to the size of his dorm back at the academy. It was a little unbelievable that one person had a whole house in such a place.
“Calm down, I got you, I got you-” The sound of Ranmaru’s voice snapped Masato out of his snooping, the blue haired male stepping into the kitchen to not only hear his boyfriend’s voice, but also the sound of several cats meowing. Standing silently in the doorframe, he watched as the other pulled out several tins from a cupboard before setting them outside the window to feed several cats which had gathered around. He smiled softly before then blushing upon remembering Masato was standing right there, turning his head around to see the other staring in awe, smiling back at him. “I didn’t realize you kept pets..” He spoke up, eyeing the window as Ranmaru closed it whilst the cats were still distracted by their dinner. “No, No I, they’re strays. They pop in and outta here time to time. I kinda ended up feedin’ them after a while.” He explained simply, surprised when Masato let out a small laugh - which only caused his partially flustered expression to worsen. “Wh-” “No- I ah, I think it’s rather adorable.”
“Adorable?”
“Yes - is that not fine?”
Ranmaru pouted for a moment, putting his hands on his hips before then letting out a sigh. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll start makin’ dinner okay, what do you want?” Raising a hand to his chin, Masato hummed in thought. “How about I help you? It’s the least I could do considering you’re letting me stay over.” Before Ranmaru could protest, the other had made his way to his fridge, seeing what there was. Which was, not a lot. He didn’t keep the place too stocked (apart from cat food) seeing as he didn’t visit here that often. “Yeah, I ain’t got much, sorry.” The silver haired man spoke up seeing the other’s confused expression, pulling whatever food was in there out of it anyway. “But I can still make us somethin’ out of this, if you’re interested.” He flashed a smile to Masato, blue eyes lighting up in curiosity. Whilst he was used to having whatever he needed to cook with at his fingertips, he was always open to learning new ideas, especially if it was something that could be made out of nothing. Allowing Masato to wear his apron, the two of them managed to cook a somewhat decent dinner, idly chatting as they then ate it together whilst watching recordings of variety shows Ranmaru had saved on his television. “Since we can’t keep up with each other all the time, I like to keep tabs on how everyone is goin’.” Was his explanation, stuffing his face with rice afterwards.
It was little traits like that which made the other endearing. Coming off as cold first, Masato and even Ren hadn’t been too sure that they’d warm up to their senpai. But after months of working together, they had started to work in some harmony together. Harmony which grew into something more for the two of them specifically. Ranmaru had confessed first, casually, at that. They’d been the last two in the practice room, Masato gathering spare water bottles that had been left around before the other had pulled him aside and told him. “Just give me an answer when you feel like it.” Was how he brushed it off, leaving Masato a flustered mess for a week after. He’d ended up been compared to Haruka when she got flustered by Natsuki whilst the two of them were in the room, both Masato and Haruka embarrassed by such a statement - even if the blonde hadn’t meant any harm. After thinking it over, and with some encouragement from Cecil and Ren, he’d accepted Ranmaru’s feelings. Telling that to the silver haired male had caused him to be a blushing mess, and that was an expression Masato looked upon fondly. Although despite all that Ranmaru still remained a rather straightforward person.
“I’m gonna take a bath first, just wait here, okay?” After making sure all the dishes had been done, Ranmaru had ducked off into his small bathroom, leaving Masato alone in his room. There wasn’t much to look at, and he never was really the type to snoop around other people’s homes. There was a large collection of music though, and upon staring at it for maybe a little too long, he eventually realized it was all rather organized. Looking around, he scooted closer to the collection, not exactly touching anything per se, but rather looking over at what he did have. It was a rather impressive collection, and the blue haired man could tell this was something that definitely had been years in the making. Sure, there were plenty of rock, but he could tell there were a mix of other genres. Oddly enough, the only idol music he could pick out were albums released by Quartet Night or STARISH. Huh.
Hearing the sound of a door open, he flinched, quickly turning around before seeing. Wait. “Ranmaru-senpai?” This wasn’t the man who was here just over 15 minutes ago. Wait. No. It was? He’d never seen him looking like this before. Although it was only a slight change it made him look like a completely different person. “What. What is it?” He’d taken out his eye contact and his hair didn’t have it’s usual fluffliness. It took him a split second to then realize Masato hadn’t exactly seen him like that before. Right, this was his first time sleeping over. “Huh ri-” Once he zoned back in, the other was standing right in front of him, placing his hands gently on his cheeks.
“Cute.”
“Shut up.”